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Apple Releases Studio Display Firmware 15.5 With Webcam Update

connormw said:
I think the larger issue here is the quality at the price point. The display panel is almost exactly the same as the LG UltraFine 5K, which launched with the new Mac Pro several years ago. This wasn't a ground-breaking, custom panel design with additional features like we saw in the XDR display.

Apple essentially took a several year old panel, put a new wrapper on it, added some additional IO and a relatively meh camera, and upped the price. Representing the display as anything extraordinary (which, to be fair, Apple does with nearly every product) was just not accurate. And frankly, the price point - without a height adjustable stand - is a sin in 2022.

Most pro users (who aren't editing 4K footage) would be well served with a much lower cost 4K display in my mind. The extra resolution afforded on a 5K display is primarily helpful for 4K workflows. But once again, the net was cast wide on the Studio lineup, and a large number of users of these devices most likely aren't in the 4K video editing space.
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That was my choice. Got a $725 LG 32" 4K along w/ a new M1 Mini. I love the extra screen size and once I get to work I'm perfectly content, though when I use my 2015 iMac (now relegated my music studio) I do miss the UI sharpness and extra brightness of the 27" 5K BUT … not for $1600. Plus the LG has a VESA desk mount that is height adjustable, swings 180 degrees, and can rotate vertically. I like this feature way more than anticipated. Yeah the case is black plastic and the build quality is nothing like Apple. But I feel smarter not spending so much frickin' money, so there's that. ;) I can't imagine telling someone, other than an Apple fanboy, that I spent $400-$1000 on a stand. Eeek!
 
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1st world problems. Are you guys on zoom meetings all day long? If so, and you need to look good, buy a top notch camera and get a Sennheiser 416 $1000 shotgun mic to sound clear since this is your life and sound is more important that what we see. Every time I see people on the zoom meetings, they all sound terrible with echo. I hate it.

Lets face it, 90% of the population isn't attractive and are better off in lower resolution especially people who work desk jobs. Nothing to look at but clean audio is necessary to hold attention.

I got this display on day 1 and I really enjoy looking at it.
 
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Lucas Curious said:
1st world problems. Are you guys on zoom meetings all day long? If so, and you need to look good, buy a top notch camera and get a Sennheiser 416 $1000 shotgun mic to sound clear since this is your life and sound is more important that what we see. Every time I see people on the zoom meetings, they all sound terrible with echo. I hate it.

Lets face it, 90% of the population isn't attractive and are better off in lower resolution especially people who work desk jobs. Nothing to look at but clean audio is necessary to hold attention.

I got this display on day 1 and I really enjoy looking at it.
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Given what I usually look like, I think a one-by-one pixel camera is the best for me. :)
 
I have an M1 MacBook Air connected to the Studio Display. When I open FaceTime with the laptop lid also open, I can switch back and forth from one camera to the other. I do like the image on the Studio Display better, with this new firmware update, than the one from my M1 MacBook Air built in webcam. That's not saying much, but at least it now feels like an upgrade at my desk rather than useless.
 
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pauldunlop said:
When do we start to worry that this is a more fundamental problem with the hardware, and Apple are scrambling to work around them? I had always assumed it was a last minute bug and it would be a fairly quick fix to enable the better image quality - but it seems not? :(
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I don’t think there’s any mystery here. Apple switched out the cameras it typically used in its iMacs for a wide-angle camera of the sort it uses in its iPads. While each worked fine in its original device, the wide-angle “iPad” camera doesn’t work very well in a display because of the different focal length and screen size. If the camera is focusing on a single person (the normal videoconferencing situation), it has to zoom in and crop the image via software, which necessarily involves a quality hit.

Bottom line is that you appear correct: the software “fix” is an attempted work-around to mitigate a bad hardware decision.
 
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Update went smooth in both of my ASDs VESA Mount. Camera looks much better now, at least better enough for my use and definitely much better than my 2017 iMac 5K FaceTime camera.
 
bluespark said:
I don’t think there’s any mystery here. Apple switched out the cameras it typically used in its iMacs for a wide-angle camera of the sort it uses in its iPads. While each worked fine in its original device, the wide-angle “iPad” camera doesn’t work very well in a display because of the different focal length and screen size. If the camera is focusing on a single person (the normal videoconferencing situation), it has to zoom in and crop the image via software, which necessarily involves a quality hit.

Bottom line is that you appear correct: the software “fix” is an attempted work-around to mitigate a bad hardware decision.
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The camera could be much better, definitely. It could have center stage and be better. Apple could just install a much better wide angle camera if they really wanted it to. The thing is that for web conferencing the existing camera is good. It's not perfect, but it looks mostly better than most other cameras. Also add to that the compression and resizing/downsizing that web conferencing software has to perform (due to bandwidth control) and things start to get better into perspective.
Of course I would have loved if Apple did indeed install a much better wide angle camera. Is the actual web camera any good? Well, it does the job and provides a great feature that I love to have (and many others too), namely Center Stage too. This is one of the best web cams Apple has installed on any of its Macs (which isn't really saying a lot but still..).
Having used center stage I wouldn't want to have a Mac without it. I know that some people don't find it any useful at all though..
For my needs the camera is good enough now. I would love to see an upgrade at some point though. It would be really great if Apple made a camera that looks like the web cam on the 24" iMac, and at the same time enabling center stage too..
 
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Update failed. Display is no longer useable. Any ideas what to do? The provided Apple support link which is shown is not very helpful…
 
Macs Pain said:
Update failed. Display is no longer useable. Any ideas what to do? The provided Apple support link which is shown is not very helpful…
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This happened to me as well. I unplugged all external devices from the display, unplugged the Thunderbolt cable at both ends, power cycled the display, connected the power supply to my MacBook Pro, and reconnected the Thunderbolt cable. At this point, the monitor continued chugging along on its install, and eventually it fired back up and everything was fine.
 
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ElGrandisimo said:
This happened to me as well. I unplugged all external devices from the display, unplugged the Thunderbolt cable at both ends, power cycled the display, connected the power supply to my MacBook Pro, and reconnected the Thunderbolt cable. At this point, the monitor continued chugging along on its install, and eventually it fired back up and everything was fine.
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Seemed to work, but then again black screen with Apple support link… 😞
Edit: Looks like the display now is in an infinite update loop…
Edit2: I changed the cable and used the original Apple thunderbolt cable, now it worked. 😅
 
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I wonder if Apple should have gone the Samsung M8 approach with a separate external webcam.

This allows for an even thinner bezel...which I think is still a tad on the thick side on the Studio Display.
 
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Macs Pain said:
Seemed to work, but then again black screen with Apple support link… 😞
Edit: Looks like the display now is in an infinite update loop…
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Keep us posted on how it turns out. I had Apple's iMessage support queued up, but luckily I didn't have to use them. Fingers crossed for you!
 
I really like the display. I think the speakers are decent, but I don't use them very often since I just AirPlay to speakers in my office. IMO, the camera is totally fine for what it is. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but if you care *that* much about camera quality, buy a better one and attach it to your display. If you hate it that much, just return the display. If you didn't make up your mind before the return window, well ... that's nobody else's fault. I bought the display to be ... a display. And if your complaint is it's too expensive then buy something else.
 
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Macs Pain said:
Update failed. Display is no longer useable. Any ideas what to do? The provided Apple support link which is shown is not very helpful…
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Unplug it, and try the update again. The release candidate did that with mine, but it worked later. I’m surprised that this is the version that went out.
 
Macs Pain said:
Update failed. Display is no longer useable. Any ideas what to do? The provided Apple support link which is shown is not very helpful…
Click to expand...

ElGrandisimo said:
This happened to me as well. I unplugged all external devices from the display, unplugged the Thunderbolt cable at both ends, power cycled the display, connected the power supply to my MacBook Pro, and reconnected the Thunderbolt cable. At this point, the monitor continued chugging along on its install, and eventually it fired back up and everything was fine.
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Same here. This time I got into a reboot loop and it kept showing the restore screen. What has eventually worked for me twice is unplugging power and Thunderbolt cable on both sides. Reconnect everything and even if it comes back to the restore screen LEAVE IT ALONE. After quite a while it started upgrading and eventually worked.
 
pauldunlop said:
I just find that hard to believe. The webcam in my M1 iMac is better than the Studio Display right now, and that doesn't seem like a hardware skimping thing, that seems like something else. I can't figure they intentionally shipped a worse camera in the Studio Display than the consumer-targeted M1 iMac.
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The problem with the Studio Display webcam is that it is designed for Center Stage. Center Stage requires an ultra-wide angle lens, which means an image that is not very sharp and has less contrast. Then the Center Stage process crops and zooms just a small section of the image to simulate the panning. This will always produce an image that is less sharp and less clear than a normal lens arrangement. They could increase the sensor density to allow more pixels in the crop, but that can only do so much. This will never be as high an image quality as a straight up 4K webcam.
 
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